AJF: Ian Siegal

Aberdeen Jazz Festival: Judging by all the awards, he’s the UK’s leading contemporary bluesman.
“Awash with wit, lust and distraction…the cleverest writer and most magnetic performer of Blues in the UK”

Royal Deeside

Home to the Braemar Highland Games and regular holiday destination to the Royal family, Royal Deeside has so much to offer visitors to Aberdeen and surrounding area.

In one of the many entries in her journals on Royal Deeside, Queen Victoria surely spoke for future generations of visitors when she wrote: "Every year my heart becomes more fixed on this dear paradise."

Successive monarchs have spent their annual summer holidays here so you'll be in good company exploring lush moorland, shady pine forests, crystal clear rivers and imposing mountains including Queen Victoria's favourite Munro, Lochnagar (3789ft) which she called the "jewel of all mountains". Her ancestors still keep her tradition of patronage of the Braemar Gathering annually on the first Saturday of September.

Follow, literally, in Royal footsteps by travelling along the Victorian Heritage Trail which will take you through charmingly individual little towns including Banchory, Aboyne, Ballater and Baemar as well as landmarks, beauty spots and attractions with a special connection to Queen Victoria who first made her beloved Barmoral Castle her Scottish home in 1856.